Face Jointing large width boards

[Ron Wright]

As a new woodworker, I have a question for all of you more experienced. I have a 6 inch jointer, and have some lumber that is more than six inches wide. I want to face joint these boards but they will not fit on the 6 inch jointer. The boards are not straight enough that I would feel comfortable running them against the fence on the table saw in order to cut them down to a size that I could use on the jointer. How do I get these to a managable size? Also when face jointing, I have the jointer set for 1/16th of an inch. Should I set the infeed/outfeed for a deeper cut in order to get the boards flat?
Thanks in advance for your assistance.

[Mark Pruitt]

If you have a circular saw, simply clamp a straight board to the one that you're wanting to put a straight edge on. Position it so that you will cut off just enought to create a straight edge; then you can go to your TS and rip boards that you can flatten on your 6" jointer. You can buy something called a jointrclamp that enables you to do this on the table saw, but frankly it's easier to me to do it with a circular saw and a straight-edge guide.

Jointer depth--1/16" is too much IMHO. I would go for 1/32".

[Mike Wilkins]

If you have a bandsaw, this is the best and safest tool to use for ripping stock without a straight edge to reference. If not, use the method suggested by the previous poster. Clamp or screw a straight edge to the board and cut one edge to use as a reference. I have used this method and it works.
Or you could just wait for some winning lottery numbers and get one of those 20" jointer/planer machines.
Good luck and watch those fingers.

[John Gregory]

If you have a surface planer, you can make a jig to joint wide pieces. FWW magazine had an article about one last February I think. The issue number is #175. They have a video online, but FWW-Online is now subscription and I do not subscribe to it.

[Jim Becker]

John has one of the solutions I'd go with...use a planer and a sled that you can shim the stock "flat" to make a few light passes to flatten the face and then process normally with the planer. The other option, depending on the material, is to use a router bridge to flatten the piece...it can even be used for both sides of something very wide and natural.

No way do I ever want to rip down a beautiful board just to flatten on a machine that is narrower than the stock needing the attention when there are other ways to accomplish the task.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

This is what he does in his own words:

"use the jointer to surface plane as much as you can, but make sure you make a dent in the wood of a little less than 1/4" (if you have an 8" jointer and a 10" board you will end up with 2" not sufaced at all, right?).

ok, if you cover the part you just surfaced planed with a piece of 1/4" ply, it will and has to for this to work, stick out of the surface a little bit, this is what you want, this will ride on the rollers of the bottom of your thickness planer. and the little strip of 2" unsurfaced material will be face down and will touch nothing

so, now for the planer, assuming you knives are on top, the ply will ride on the bottom rollers providing a flat surface, enabeling the knives on top to cut a flat surface parallel to the ply on bottom, which is parallel to what you surfaced earlier with the jointer.

next flip the board over, take the plywood away, and plane the side wit h the little 2" of unsurfaced material left."

[Scott Banbury]

I regularly face joint up to 10" on my 8" jointer. The trick is to use a block or jack plane to knock off the unjointed strip remaining after each pass. Once it's flat hit both faces with the planer.

[Michael Conner]

IMHO If you have very many to do, the table saw is much faster. Of course, I don't have one the dedicated ez guides.

Mark, thanks for that link. I have been looking for a set of those clamps to help clean up some warped boards. I had almost decided that I would make my own but for that price, I think I'll just order a pair.

[Jim Becker]

The method that Cliff mentions will work with many jointers (but not all), but does require complete removal of the guard. One must take great care because of that! For that reason alone, I would never recommend it as the "first choice" when there are so many available. I used this technique a couple times when I had a 6" jointer and it works, but it was very uncomfortable for me...

[Steve Clardy]

I don't normally face joint anything. I use my jointer to edge joint glue joints.
But when the ocassion arises, and my 6" jointer isn't wide enough for the board in question, I rip it in half with tablesaw, or EZ guide, face joint, then glue it back together.
I never remove the guard from my jointer. Its there for a reason.
I've got too many friends that have nipped the ends of their fingers off doing that.

[Deirdre Saoirse Moen]

As a new woodworker, you might also consider using a hand plane for those situations, either for the entire face or, as Scott suggests, for the part not jointed by machine.

[Ron Wright]

Thanks for all the advice. I was planning on buying a low angle smoother plane and an addtional 38 degree blade for smooting face grain. Will a low angle smoother work in this situation?
Steve, I would cut this stock, then smooth it on the jointer and planer and then glue it back up. I do not want to waste any fine wood.
Thanks again.

[glenn bradley]

Around here, you can have a lumber yard do it for you but the quality and cost varies widely.

[Michael Keating]

You can take the guard off of your jointer and run one face across the jointer. Then flip the board around and the face joint the section that is left. There was just a great article in Popular Woodworking on this methos. Or if your were in Havertown yesterday, you could have watched me do it.

Mike

[Jim Becker]

Ron, no matter how you choose to flatten your boards, cutting them down to component length after a quick "skim plane" (so you can judge the figure and grain) and then flattening will give you the best results with the least amount of wasted material. Make them a little over sized in length. You can cut to final length after fully dimensioning them in cross section. This method may also make it possible to face joint some components on your existing jointer for parts that will be 6" or less in width, reducing the amount of work you need to do along the way. But the skim planing step is quite important so you are using your stock to best effect.